Divine Disclosure Research Articles

The Blessed Tree in the works of Ibn Barrajān of Seville (d. 536/1141)

Abstract In his commentary on the Light Verse (Q. 24:35), the Andalusian mystic and Qurʾān exegete Abū al-Ḥakam Ibn Barrajān (d. 1141) presents the blessed tree (al-shajara al-mubāraka) not simply as a terrestrial olive tree in Syria or even as a mystical allegory, but as the ultimate locus of divine disclosure and the highest metaphysical entity in the cosmos that subsumes the world of creation. This article assesses the originality of Ibn Barrajān’s contribution to the heavenly tree motif by examining his unique mystical and exegetical theories informing his ontological reading of the blessed tree, including the concept of the ‘reality upon which creation is created’ and the ‘universal servant’. In addition to analysing the internal logic of Ibn Barrajān’s discourse, this article explores the larger interpretive themes recurrent across exoteric, Sufi, and philosophical interpretations of the Light Verse up to the twelfth century that the author may have had access to in al-Andalus, including the treatises of the Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al-ṣafā) and Biblical sources. Finally, this article highlights how Ibn Barrajān weaves the Qurʾānic good tree (al-shajara al-ṭayyiba) and the lote tree of the furthest boundary (sidrat al-muntahā) into his overarching understanding of the blessed tree. It also considers how his reading may have contributed to later readings by Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240) and some of his intellectual heirs.

Embodied Evangelization: Vowed Life as Testimony and Divine Disclosure

This article examines two problems within contemporary religious life: ambiguity over the precise role of consecrated religious both within the People of God and for the world, and an unhealthy functionalism that elevates ministry over the vowed life. Drawing from Hans Urs von Balthasar's phenomenology of holiness, the author proposes that the essence of religious life lies primarily in the way it embodies transcendence through a public, vowed life. This evangelization through public consecration is of prime importance, he argues, and should be considered more seriously.

Biblical Theology

Biblical Theology Fred W. Guyette, Christopher T. Begg, Thomas Hieke, Brent A. Strawn, and Atilla Bodor 875. [God Acting in History; Sinai] Craig G. Bartholomew, The God Who Acts in History: The Significance of Sinai (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2020). Pp. xxii + 265. $45. ISBN 978-0-8028-7467-2. In the Bible and in our liturgies we encounter claims that God is Creator and Ruler of the universe, and that God has acted in certain historical events in a decisive way. God's purpose in doing these things is to invite us into a relationship with him. On the basis of these actions, God wants us to join in the missio Dei. George E. Wright's book God Who Acts (1952) is one important landmark in the discussion. James Barr has probed and questioned these claims, however, and raised serious doubts about whether the miracles recounted in Exodus, particularly on Mt. Sinai, really happened. A similar argument is made by John Van Seters, "The Plagues of Egypt: Ancient Tradition or Literary Invention?" ZAW 98 (1986) 31-39. Benjamin Sommer examines both minimalist and maximalist approaches to the question of whether God speaks and acts in history in his Revelation and Authority: Sinai in Jewish Scripture and Tradition (2015). Maimonides (1138–1204) had his own pious and mystical reasons for believing that God did not "speak" at Sinai. B. Spinoza (1632–1677) read the Bible closely, and found that many of its rational ideas about law that had to be communicated by means of "events" that were imagined rather than historical. Kant, too, valued the Ten Commandments because they make us better human beings, but he doubted the historicity of the signs and wonders in Exodus. According to Michael Wyschogrod's book The Body of Faith: God in the People Israel, however, Scripture shows us a God who is a real character in a historically grounded narrative, with real emotions (anger, sorrow, great love), who engages in historical actions. B. gives special attention to the implications of Exodus 19–24, in which God enters into a covenant with Moses and Israel. Here, B. finds good reasons for concluding that God has spoken to us and that God does act in human history.—F.W.G. [End Page 315] 876. [God; Revelation] Richard Bauckham, Who Is God? Key Moments of Biblical Revelation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020). Pp. 120. $21.99. ISBN 97-1-5409-6190-7. This small volume originated as a lecture series delivered by B., a senior British NT scholar, in 2015 in Addis Ababa and in 2018 in Nova Scotia. In the introduction to the volume, B. gives (pp. 2-3) this account of the approach, content, and aim of his work: "The key moments of divine disclosure we shall reflect on in the book … are Jacob's dream at Bethel (Gen 28:10-22); the revelation to Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 3); the revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exod 33:17–34:8); and the three key moments of revelation in the Gospel of Mark (1:9-11; 9:2-8; 15:37-39). In all these cases, our exploration of biblical theology will range more widely than these moments of disclosure themselves, but they will be our guiding stars by which to travel the related territory. "My approach in this book is to treat the Bible as a canonical whole. Here I do not engage in historical reconstruction behind and around the texts, though that is a task that greatly interests me and one I pursue elsewhere. Here I am interested in the texts as we have them and as belonging to the canon of Scripture—a collection of sacred writings that witness to God through the divine disclosures they contain. "I hope to show readers that the Bible's account of the identity of God is consistent both within and across the two testaments. I have no wish to discount the diversity of the various parts of Scripture, but I think that a theological interpretation of Scripture should seek the unity in the diversity. The approach is necessarily broad brush, but detailed exegesis is at its heart...

Naming God’s presence in preaching

Does preaching bring God on stage? Protestants assume an intimate relationship between the ‘Word of God’ and preaching. However, the principle that ‘preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God’ caused intense debates about the status of God language. The author highlights the classic disputes of the 19th and 20th centuries and argues that the old dilemma must be overcome. Sermons address the subjective-contextual conditions of the listeners, and this in no way precludes the attention for divine disclosure. On the contrary, there is a true reciprocity between personal spirituality and the sense of God as really other. The author defends the thesis that the renewed attention for the human condition in the theological debates of the last decades should also include a positive stand towards the believer’s spiritual awareness of God’s real existence and presence.

Divine Drama or Divine Disclosure? Hell, Universalism, and a Parting of the Ways

Modern TheologyVolume 36, Issue 1 p. 201-210 Review Essay Divine Drama or Divine Disclosure? Hell, Universalism, and a Parting of the Ways Roberto J. De La Noval, rdelanov@nd.edu Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame, 130 Malloy Hall, Notre Dame, IN, 46556 USASearch for more papers by this author Roberto J. De La Noval, rdelanov@nd.edu Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame, 130 Malloy Hall, Notre Dame, IN, 46556 USASearch for more papers by this author First published: 13 September 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/moth.12555Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume36, Issue1Themed Issue: “Negative Political Theology”January 2020Pages 201-210 RelatedInformation

The Human Quest and Divine Disclosure according to Walker Percy: An Examination in Light of Lonergan

Introduction THE LIFE OF THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC novelist and philosopher Walker Percy (1916-1990) dramatically illustrates tensions of faith, reason, and science. Percy was raised an affluent and prominent Southern family marked by history of melancholy, depression, and tragedy. (1) As Paul Elie explains, There was suicide nearly every generation. One Percy man dosed himself with laudanum; another leaped into creek with sugar kettle tied around his neck. John Walker Percy--Walker Percy's grandfather--went up to attic 1917 and shot himself head. (2) His father, Leroy Pratt Percy, committed suicide attic 1929. Percy remarked, central mystery of my life is to figure out why my father committed suicide. In fact, wondering if he were destined for same fate, he often referred to himself as an ex-suicide. As Grant Kaplan notes, the question was how to get on living after deciding to live. (3) This article explores several connections between work of American novelist and philosopher, Walker Percy, and Canadian Jesuit philosopher and theologian, Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984). As far as I can tell, neither thinker ever referred to other. (4) Yet, as I have argued elsewhere, there are many unexplored connections between two thinkers. (5) The particular focus of this article is human quest and divine disclosure according to Walker Percy with special attention given to work of Lonergan. After narrating Percy's shift from scientism to broader examination of human condition, I will show Percy's attempt to articulate kind of knowledge that might account for this widening of horizons. The analysis then treats Lonergan's understanding of reason, faith, and belief as heuristic for illuminating same themes explored two of Percy's novels--The Moviegoer and Lancelot--both of which are permeated with questions concerning human quest, belief, and faith modern world. Percy's Broadening of Horizons (6) Early his life Percy had an inclination toward science. As Jay Tolson observes, even his high school years Greeneville, Mississippi, wake of deep tragedy, Percy was looking for certainties, and though he attended Greenville's Presbyterian church along with his brothers, he found them, not religion or his Uncle Will's Stoicism, but in science--or, more accurately, that exaggerated faith science that is called scientism. (7) Attracted by its elegance, beauty, and simplicity, science exhibited for him constant movement direction of ordering endless variety and seeming haphazardness of ordinary life by discovering underlying principles, which become formulated more rigorously. (8) Trained at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Percy contracted pulmonary tuberculosis while working as pathologist at Bellevue Hospital New York City. As result of this diagnosis, he was forced to spend significant amount of time sanatorium Adirondack Mountains. This forced exile deeply transformed his inner life, and indeed, shaped intellectual and existential trajectory of rest of his life. What were consequences of this illness and interruption? Although Percy never abandoned his allegiance to and love for rigor and discipline of scientific he experienced a shift of ground, broadening of perspective, change of focus. (9) On his sickbed, he began to read Dostoevsky, Camus, Jaspers, Marcel, and Heidegger, among others. Indicative of his expanding horizons, Percy became less interested physiological and pathological processes of human body and more fascinated by questions concerning nature and destiny of human person, and, more specifically, by peculiar predicament of human persons thrown (to use Heidegger's image) into modern technological society. Percy writes: If first great intellectual discovery of my life was beauty of scientific method, surely second was discovery of singular predicament of man very world which has been transformed by science. …

Transgressing Theological Shibboleths

Building on the proposals of Jennings, Bantum, and Carter toward constructing alternative theological articulations that move away from racialized framings, this paper proposes a reinterpretation of the cultural dimension as locus of divine activity. This methodological shift requires that the historically-culturally specific event of Jesus be reinterpreted as opening the door for the celebration of other ethnocultural traditions, which, when coupled with the event of Pentecost, provides enough grounds for discerning the Spirit at work at the level of culture. The two events of Jesus and Pentecost challenge us to reconceive the particular culturally bound ways in which the Spirit is involved in the process of divine disclosure, leading us toward the recognition of the contextual, plurivocal, and multicultural nature of theological reflection.

Mortal and Divine in Xenophanes’ Epistemology

: In the first instance, this paper offers a new interpretation of the logic of Xenophanes B18.1. Contrary to the two ways in which previous commentators have construed this line, Xenophanes neither categorically rejects the notion of divine disclosure nor acquiesces in traditional understandings of it. Rather, Xenophanes rejects traditional conceptions of divine disclosure as theologically faulty and supplants them with his own, alternative notion of disclosure. Having argued that Xenophanes developed a conception of divine disclosure, I advance further suggestions concerning its function and characteristics. I follow and develop Lesher’s (1983) argument that Xenophanes arrives at his understanding of the limitations of human knowledge by rejecting traditional divinatory assumptions. But Lesher, I suggest, tells only half the story. On Xenophanes’ conception of disclosure, the divine purposively facilitates mortal belief-formation and mortal inquiry. That is, Xenophanes’ own understanding of disclosure underlies his positive views regarding what does lie within the scope of mortal epistemology. More speculatively, I develop two alternative interpretations of the precise notion of purposiveness which underlies Xenophanean disclosure. Most probably, Xenophanes reconceptualises the notion of divine disclosure radically as the view that the divine purposively facilitates all mortal experience and belief-formation as part of its intelligent direction of the cosmos and its inhabitants. Another, somewhat less likely possibility is that Xenophanes maintains less idiosyncratically that the divine guides particular mortals in particular circumstances. Finally, I ask how the proposed interpretation of Xenophanes’ epistemology may lend nuance to our understanding of the complexity of his critical engagement with the traditional mantic model of divine disclosure.

Studies in Matthew: Interpretation Past and Present

(ProQuest Information and Learning: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.) in Matthew: Interpretation and Present, by Dale C. Allison, Jr. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005. Pp. 288. $34.99 (hardcover). ISBN 0801027918. in Matthew, by Ulrich Luz. Translated by Rosemary Selle. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005. Pp. 397. $30.00 (paper). ISBN 0802839649. These recently published collections of essays by Dale Allison and Ulrich Luz display significant interest in historical-critical issues, history of interpretation, and narrative, synchronie dimensions of Matthew's Gospel found in their commentaries. AlIison's essays are either new or significantly revised, whereas most of Luz's are English translations of prior work. Allison divides his thirteen essays into Exegetical Past (Part I), consisting of six new pieces, and Literary and Historical Studies (Part II), consisting of three new and four revised essays. The essays in Part I generally provide substantive discussions of exegetical history involving both giants like Chrysostom and lesser-known figures like Cosmas Indicopleustas. Allisoris mastery extends also to Reformation and post-Reformation theologians and scholars as well as figures from other fields such as English author Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859). Allison's references are intrinsic to his arguments and often aid in subverting unhelpful interpretive assumptions. The results are fresh, compelling readings of selected Matthean texts. Further, Allison displays newfound postmodern interpretive sensibilities. In Magi's Angel (Matt. 2:2, 9-1O), Allison maintains that one should not understand of Matt 2:2 as a heavenly phenomenon, as does most modern exegesis. Exegetical history largely excludes this option in light of star's odd behavior. Positively, ancient interpretation explains Matthew's star: Quite simply, Matthew's idea of a was not our idea of a star (21); ancient texts relating and equating angels and stars support conclusion that the guiding was a guiding angel (29). In seeing God (Matt. 5:8), Allison draws on exegetical history to investigate neglected phrase they will see God, concluding that [Matthew] and his early readers... probably hoped one day to share experience of angels in heaven and to see a somatic God to face (61)-a reading counterintuitive to modern interpreters. Allison's interest, however, here less exegetical and more theological and theoretical. Allison concludes with a section entitled Theological Value of Exegetical History, in which he sounds positively postmodern. First, exegetical history shows that a verse a station on way whose full meaning can only be pondered by retracing paths that led to and by uncovering paths that have gone out from (61). Second, that readers are situated means that interpretations are constantly changing; plain sense may supply a modicum of interpretive certitude, but may be equally grateful that such stability does not prevent ceaseless and creative reapplication of Scriptures, from which we can bring forth treasures new as well as old (62). Third, multiple meanings need not be mutually exclusive. Fourth, revelation a process-given first three points, it makes little sense to confine revelation to words on a biblical page. Exegetical history in its entirety rather confronts us with an ongoing, evolving divine disclosure (63). Coming from de facto author of ICC commentary on Matthew (with W. D. Davies, The Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 3 vols.; ICC; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988-97) and a heretofore fervent defender of historical-critical paradigm, this chapter signals a significant change in course. The third essay, Murder and Anger, Cain and Abel (Matt. 5:21-25), less theoretical but equally intriguing. Allison draws on inter- and intratextual connections to contend that this passage is designed to send informed readers back to Gen. …

READING THE BURNING BUSH: VOICE, WORLD AND HOLINESS

AbstractThe story of Moses' encounter with God at the Burning Bush has played a central role in the evolution and development of Christian metaphysics. This essay presents a reading which seeks to pay greater attention to the dynamics of the text itself and to the modes of reading which it engenders. These, it is argued, can be shown to be unique in that they confront the reader with an apparatus of attentiveness to the sensible real of the empirical world which, far from being suppressed by the act of reading, is actually foregrounded as a place and time of possible divine disclosure.

Divine Disclosure and Concealment in Bach, Pascal and Levinas

Divine Disclosure and Concealment in Bach, Pascal and Levinas

The Bible, Knowledge of God and Dei Verbum

How may an inquiring person fittingly look upon the Bible? In what manner can a person's attention to the Bible assist them to knowledge? For a Catholic Christian analysis, what ideas are suitable about the place of the Bible in relations between God and humans, and in appropriation by a person today of whatever divine disclosure or revelation is at hand? This article outlines reflections on these matters. Links are apparent with key points in Vatican II’s Dei Verbum.The first of four sections concerns a fundamentalist outlook. Section II has to do with certain limited but significant ways in which a person may look on the Bible: ways similar to ways in which a person may look on other texts.Section III pauses on inquiries into ‘deep, inner’ matters of life where the person inquiring does not proceed from a perspective of Catholic Christian faith.Section IV surveys a broad range of thoughts that may aptly be endorsed from within a perspective of Catholic Christian faith. The thoughts concern the nature of the situation by which a Catholic Christian person today can advance in knowledge of God: in appropriation of divine disclosure. Ways in which a person may look on the Bible that go beyond those exhibited earlier are now made explicit. (The article fully allows that numerous views held by one or another follower of Jesus who does not adhere to Roman Catholicism may, in respects at stake, harmonize with a Catholic Christian faith‐perspective.)

The Flesh of God: Christological Implications for an Ecological Vision of the World

The great religious traditions of the world, including especially the indigenous religions of North America, have profound contributions to make to the ecological vision we need. In this paper I can only speak of the ecological significance of the gospel of Christ. I begin with the faith stance that Jesus Christ, God's Word made flesh, is "our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30). This means that ultimately we shall find our salvation, even our ecological salvation, in God's grace. Because Christ is our wisdom, the scriptural witness to him in the Old and New Testaments stands alone as the incomparable source of our faith. That is why I think it appropriate to approach the ecological question from a christo logical centre and on a biblical basis. If we believe we have a decisive divine disclosure in the flesh of Jesus Christ, and, in his life, death and resurrection, the decisive appearance of God's reign, then all our theological thought, including our ecological theology, needs to be governed in him. But ecological theology is a kind of contextual theology which seeks to address the environmental crisis theologically. A further methodological premise is that theologians must attend to both the Bible and the context (or as in Karl Barth's oft-quoted bon mot, "the Bible and the newspaper").

Preadamites: The History of an Idea from Heresy to Orthodoxy

To reconcile the early chapters of the book of Genesis with the findings of science has been the self-appointed task of Christian apologists for generations. Indeed in our own day the much publicized manoeuvres of a militant creationist movement reveal just how vibrant the debate remains in some quarters about how to relate the book of Nature to the book of Scripture. Over the years numerous harmonizing strategies have been advanced and, once hatched, they have, like organisms, evolved and adapted to the intellectual climate in which they have found themselves. Among these, the gap theory (postulating a lengthy period of time between Genesis 1 verse 1 and 1 verse 2 into which the whole gamut of geological history can be squeezed), the day-age theory (interpreting the creative days as geological epochs), and the ‘days of revelation’ theory (seeing the Genesis week as successive days of divine disclosure) might be specified as concordist schemes whose fortunes have changed with the passing of time. For ideas, it is clear, no less than individuals, can enjoy social legitimation or suffer from the lack of it.

Faith and Reason in the Thought of St. Augustine

Christianity boldly asserted that the eternal Logos had been manifested in the personal history of Jesus called Christ. Once this claim began to receive wide acceptance, the older ways of philosophizing characteristic of the classical ages were shaken. On the one hand, Christians affirmed positively that God had drawn nigh, disclosing himself in history to those who believed. On the other hand, they held that, apart from reliance upon this divine disclosure, the efforts of scientific reason to apprehend God were pitifully inadequate and perverse.